Salon challenge #5 - Happy Together

Barbara had Patrick's painting ...

Patrick's fauvist-style plein air painting below 

was Barbara's to work on along with the songs from Patrick's birth year.

She turned this painting upside-down. 

And she kindly sent me her progress shots:

Happy Together     12 x 12 inches     oil over acrylic on canvas

The song that hit the "right note" for the painting is:

Happy Together

by The Turtles

Barbara is a photographer with a good eye for great photos. She 

has spent many hours watching birds during migration and, well, all year long.

At one point during the summer she found this pair of Wood Duck (Aix sponsa).

... and she knows how to handle a paint brush as well. 

Here are some words from Barbara 

about her painting process for this challenge. 

 "I felt the emotion of knowing these two ducks... and it was the way they looked at me and carried their heads that was the most important to get right.   And saving a red spot for his eye, because I knew I would not have a source of bright red later... Alizarin would not do.  And deciding to paint them backlit because the palette could not produce their magnificence in light.  This was a benefit of the challenge (having a limited palette), because it is so tempting to paint their brilliance and it forced me to back off on that distraction.  I think it focuses more on them as individuals ... "

We all thought this painting turned out exceptionally well!

We decided this was a challenge that was not only right-brained (creative); 

we had to left-brain it (listen and think), too.

(I think this whole thing may be puzzling to some, 

and I have tried to explain simply the process we went through for this project. 

But let me know if you are confused about our challenge #5

that I began posting about on July 29.)

On to Challenge #6! 

I will be away for a good 10 days 

to a painting workshop and visiting friends.

Keep painting! and thank you so much for checking in.